CAMBRIDGE, Mass., April 3, 2013 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Aegerion Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Nasdaq:AEGR), a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative, life-altering therapies for patients with debilitating and often fatal rare diseases, today announced that on April 1, 2013, Aegerion granted stock options to purchase an aggregate of 13,000 shares of common stock to two new employees under the inducement stock option program described below. Each stock option has an exercise price per share equal to $39.02, the closing price of Aegerion's common stock on the grant date; vests in equal monthly installments over four years; has a ten year term; and is subject to the terms and conditions of Aegerion's Inducement Award Stock Option Plan, and the terms and conditions of a stock option agreement covering the grant.

As Aegerion previously announced, in support of the company's build of its U.S. commercial organization and international expansion, the Compensation Committee of the Company's Board of Directors approved the reservation of 1,000,000 shares of common stock to be used exclusively for the grant of non-qualified stock options to individuals who were not previously an employee or non-employee director of Aegerion (or following a bona fide period of non-employment), as an inducement new hire stock option award material to an individual's entry into employment within the meaning of Rule 5635(c)(4) of the NASDAQ Listing Rules (Inducement Stock Options).

Aegerion Pharmaceuticals is a biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the development and commercialization of innovative, life-altering therapies for patients with debilitating, often fatal, rare diseases. For more information about the company, please visit www.aegerion.com.